Anthony Malloy

One thousand blog entries.

It’s taken over two years but I’ve made it. Thanks to all the regular readers who keep on coming back (even when I don’t blog for five days).

Here’s a potted history of the last thousand entries, ignoring all the posts of me whining about my beloved Tigers or Canucks and taking in to account I don’t say how I lucky am to have Rae and Stink any where near enough.

The high/low lights of the first 1000 Between Coffee posts.

Rae and I decide to move in together. Instant family.
The Visitors From Hell destroy a weekend.
I get a nephew and he’s named in part after me.
The rooster war ends (Check previous posts for the full story)
I really like this photo.
Thomas makes himself the thousand dollar cat.
Rae talks in her sleep and we get an elephant called Gerald.
I forgot I outed Grace as a plagiarist.
Rae sleep talking again.
The neighbour troubles begin two days after we re-sign our lease for a year.
Belter arrives.
The worlds most boring dream.
First time we contemplate moving due to neighbours.
The neighbour gets struck by karma.
But they strike back soon enough.
And again.
And again.
I get my new car.
Neighbours again.
And we almost got rid of them at the auction that ended up not being one.
Andit appears they may win.
But a stroke of good fortune lands in a home we love.
Then the agent tries to screw us over.
But in the end justice prevails!
We get to announce we are Contemplating Albert
And, of course, The Deb Project

It’s official, we’re going to be in the Herald Sun on August 7, timed to coincide with the launch of the new album. I think Deborah Conway has been interviewed too so I hope everyone was on their best behaviour .

Rae just asked if you were to release a single which song would it be? So if you were there and have the CD what’s your pick of the album?

This will probably make a lot more sense if you go read Rae’s story first.

Given that when Rae was speaking to him Phee’s biological dad mentioned he’d been watching her at school we thought it would be a good idea to have a chat to Phee about this.

It was just me and Phee for dinner tonight so I asked her if she remembered about ‘Stranger Danger’ from school. She ran through what to do and I let it lie for ten minutes.

I then asked her what she’d do if ‘Fred’ approached her at school.

“Well, he once was my dad, before you were. And he did know my family so I’d probably say hello.” she said, swirling her fish finger in the sauce as she thought it through.

“What if he asked you to go back to his house?”

She looked straight up.

“I’d say ‘No, I want to be with my real family’.”

Then after she thought for a couple of seconds she decided it would be a good idea to tell a teacher.

I gave here a kiss, she finished her dinner and made me pinky promise we would watch telly together.

I’m a very lucky man.

Today was ‘Serious Day’. It’s been a week since I went to the doc and I have to do something about a healthier life style. The weekend wasn’t a great start, drinks here and there, pizza, no exercise.

Yesterday I realised that I was kidding myself and that putting off starting ‘one more day’ as much as I was would see me 85 by the time I pulled on my sneakers and went for a walk. I do want to get healthy so I had my first huff and puff session around the suburb when I got home from work today. The battery in my radio is fading, my shoes need new shoelaces, Hobsons Bay needs to spend more money on footpath repairs and walking on overpasses above peak hour traffic can be freaky but I feel great.

Now the sneakers are living by the back door, reminding me each day when I get home that the only person who make me healthier is me.

Bloody sneakers.

I got a phone call on the way home today from the Sun Bookshop in Yarraville to say a book I had ordered months ago had finally made it in. It’s a book I wanted to buy when it was first released in hard cover many years ago but I’m glad I waited as it seems it has been expanded for the paper back edition.

That, however, may not be a comforting thing as the book is Buried Alive – The Terrifying History of Out Most Primal Fear.

Even though I’m not a fan of confined spaces, not by a long shot, I’ve always had a macabre fascinated by this subject. So tonight after making sure the sheets aren’t tucked in too tightly, that a light is on and that I can see my breath in a mirror I’ll start reading.

It has just been announced and I love it.

Star Wars Episode III has a title.

You’ve done it George, finally a title that’s worthy of a Star Wars film. Now, if only you can deliver the film to match.

I’m not sure I will be able to do this justice but I’ll give it a shot.

Last night was the culmination of The Deb Project and I’m still smiling this morning.

Rae and I both had the day off yesterday so after a spot of market research in the afternoon (that is relevant, just take note and keep on reading) and cleaning we were pretty much ready when Kathy was the first non-family to rock up at 6:50.

Before long the lounge room was filling up. At one stage two people walked in, friends of Rob. These two people looked rather familiar – they were the people we met for the first time earlier the day, they ran the market research we went to. It’s a very small world. Soon we had more than 30 people crammed into our place and with Daniel and Deb Conway look-alike Marita’s arrival everyone was set.

It must take a special sort of courage to walk in to a house of 30 people you do not know and entertain them. But that’s exactly what the amazing Ms Deborah Conway did. I met her and Willy at the door, pointed them through the assembled throng, arranged chairs and off we went.

She and Willly gave us four songs from the new album, Summertown. We go the story behind ‘Accidents Happen In The Home’, we all now know the connection between Tupperware and Summertown, Willy got us singing along in place of several burly men, we now know there must be at least one piece of Ikea furniture in the Conway/Zieger household and we were able to see two amazing musicians making their music, just for us, in the lounge room of our humble home. Such a voice, such musical talent and for a too short time it was ours, just a couple of feet away.

After the music there was CD signing, the greatest of which I will scan this afternoon and add to this blog. Rob had his Bitch Epic poster signed, Marita her copy of The Happiest Place In Town (the same copy that lived here for a few years), I got my digipack of String of Pearls signed too. The good side for Deb and Willy is they even got to sell a few more CDs.

As I said at the start, I can’t do justice to what a great night it was. Rob and I are still on a high this morning. We did it, we got Deb, and the memories will last a long long time. For an outsiders perspective check the Herald Sun next weekend, there should be an article on the night in the weekend section. Fergus from dig will let me know when his review goes online too.

Most importantly Rob and I want to thank the following for helping us make this little dream come true :

Rae
Kathy
Ren
Daniel
Catherine
Marita
Viv
Rob (catboy)
Saph
Ben C
Knackers
Beth
Agent Fare Evader
Veronica
Steve (Camera operator extraordinaire )
Leah
Leanne
Zita
Kirsten
Gina
Linda
Zoe
Vicky
Jason
Meg & Dave
Darren
Sally
Michelle

For all those taking pictures – can you please email them to either Rob or myself. I want to put up a page for those who couldn’t make it.

And the CD is wonderful – go and buy it now for more clues to the stories above. Tell Deb that Rob and Tony sent you.

(Photos and video to come – my computer chose today to do a rather spectacular crash so I’ve a bit of rebuilding to do. Special thanks to Andrew at Standard Computers for dragging my PC back from the brink.)

Seriously, why would you ever buy anything PC related from a shop?

Yesterday was an exciting day – Officeworks opened up just up the road and seeing as how Rae and I had the day off we went up to have a browse. When I say ‘we went’ I actually mean I ran screaming with joy from the car pretty much before it had even stopped in the car park and Rae came along behind, telling me to calm down.

Anyways, I found a 4 port USB 2.0 PCI card which, even though I recently got a new hub, I need for my PC. Hmm, $59. A bit rich but not too bad. Thought I’d take Stinky for a look today and pick it up then.

Poor Stink ain’t gonna get to see Officeworks today. I checked Ebay when I got home just to see. Well, look at this. Good price. Let’s bid. Five minutes late I got exactly what I wanted for $26.

Forget multi-mega-conglomerates, the biggest threat to local traders is, and will increasingly become, Ebay.

This time tomorrow night we’ll be rolling out the red carpet in preparation for the culmination of The Deb Project.

Last time I saw Deb Conway was at her greatest hits concert a couple of years ago. Standing around outside the Atheneum I had to answer the call of nature only to return to find Rob, Rae and Marita grinning like Cheshire cats. The Age photographer had just snapped a picture of the trio, telling them they would be in the ‘about town’ section the next day. Of course I sulked and pleaded for a new photo to be taken but I was out of luck.

The next day, with more than a touch of schadenfreude on my part, we all opened the paper to see they had been gazumped by Kath and Kim.

This time, with a photographer from The Herald Sun and another from dig no glamorous hornbags from Fountain Lakes will get in our way.

I’ve been thinking about this blog lately and I want to change it.

It needs a new layout, this one is a couple of years old now and gasp, shock even uses &lt font &gt tags. It must have been the last project I did that featured them. Regardless, they have to go and CSS has to come in so I can do a PDA/small screen version. I need to get RSS happening for all blogs that run off the site, maybe even an ATOM feed. I want to make it more obvious that Contemplating Albert is one of my blogs and I want to start a couple more – one for photos of around here and another on tech stuff I find on the web. Maybe one for my business too.

I should move to WordPress but I’m too busy at the moment to spend a weekend making sure everything works, and my PHP probably isn’t up to scratch just yet to get exactly what as quickly as I want so I’ll stick with MT 2.6 and ASP a little longer.

This is entry 991 for me, I wonder if I could make it all happen by entry 1000?